Posted on March 9, 2010.
Children of smoking parents are not healthy Smoking habits in parents can remotely affect the health of their children who may suffer from respiratory problems later in life, a study said.
Children who show no signs of respiratory problems may still be faced with adverse changes in their breathing process that could lead to lung disease later in life, according to a new study presented at the American Thoracic Society Conference 2007 International Sunday.
"Everyone knows that children whose parents smoke have more respiratory problems - more puffs of breath, wheezing, cases of pneumonia - but so far we have not known if lung function is impaired in children who have no respiratory problems or lung problems diagnosis, "researcher Bert Arets of Medicine, University of Utrecht in the Netherlands Centre said.
The study included 244 children from the age of 4 to 12 and no history of lung cancer or respiratory diseases. They were divided into four groups according to smoking habits of parents: those who never smoked, smoking after birth but not during pregnancy, during pregnancy, but not after birth, and both before and after birth.
The researchers found that children of parents who smoke have significantly reduced lung function similar to that seen in smokers. smoking after birth seems to be more harmful than smoking during pregnancy .
The researchers have now extended their study to include 2,000 healthy children of parents who smoke. Earlier, a Dutch study noted that exposure to secondhand smoke is harmful to babies who are underweight.
babies born at term with low birth weight (5.5 pounds) have a significantly increased risk of developing respiratory symptoms such as coughing, wheezing and chest infections at the age of five years. The risk is greater if these children are exposed to secondhand smoke.
The association between birth weight and respiratory symptoms decreased after the age of five years and was not significant by age seven, the researchers found.
Analysis of data on more than 3,600 infants, researchers found that during the first seven years of life, nearly 39% of them had at least one episode of wheezing, almost 52% had cough the night and over 37% had a lower respiratory tract infection.
Otherwise, a Finnish study shows smokers may have a higher risk of becoming depressed compared to non-smokers. Smokers who quit have an increased risk of depressive symptoms in the short term. However, in the long run this risk declines to the level of never smokers. Both lifestyle completely non-smoking and quit smoking successfully seems to protect from depressive symptoms.
